DEATH IN A CHURCH: THE OVERVIEW

DEATH IN A CHURCH: THE OVERVIEW; With Question of 'Why' Unanswered, Fort Worth Mourns

By JIM YARDLEY

Published: September 18, 1999

FORT WORTH, Sept. 17—
With funerals for the seven victims in the Wedgwood Baptist Church shootings scheduled to begin this weekend, Fort Worth residents held candlelight vigils and prayer services today as the police conceded that they might never know why the attack happened.

In what city officials said was their final news briefing in the case, the Acting Chief of Police, Ralph Mendoza, said the investigative phase of the case had essentially ended despite unanswered questions about why the gunman, Larry Gene Ashbrook, opened fire on Wednesday at a church service for teen-agers.

Seven people were killed and seven others were wounded in the attack, much of which was captured on two home videos, which have been turned over to the police.

Chief Mendoza said that no evidence had been found linking Mr. Ashbrook to hate groups, and he noted that Mr. Ashbrook's siblings had described their brother, who was 47 and chronically jobless, as a paranoid schizophrenic. Investigators said there was no reason to explore Mr. Ashbrook's motives further because he killed himself and there were no other suspects in the slayings.

''In this case, we don't have a whodunit,'' Deputy Chief Don Gerland said. ''We know who did it.''

The portrait that has emerged of Mr. Ashbrook as a paranoid recluse was reinforced by two letters he wrote in recent months to The Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The letters, dated July 31 and Aug. 10, were published in the newspaper today.

In the letters, Mr. Ashbrook complained that agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, had done him a ''serious injustice'' by investigating him as a suspected serial murderer. He blamed agents, whom he said had confused him with another serial killer, for his failure to hold down a job.

In Fort Worth today, people prepared for a long weekend of mourning. At least one candlelight vigil was planned for tonight, and funerals for three of the seven victims were scheduled for Saturday. Four people remained hospitalized, but three others had been released. A citywide memorial service at the Texas Christian University football stadium on Sunday afternoon is expected to attract thousands of people.

Chief Mendoza said that city environmental management crews cleaned Wedgwood Baptist early this morning and that the police would return the church to the congregation today. Church officials plan to hold two services on Sunday and a funeral for one of the victims on Monday.

Coming after several shootings in schools, a Jewish community center and office buildings, the Wedgwood attack has brought renewed calls for tighter laws on gun control. Mr. Ashbrook used two handguns, and investigators said he bought both from federally licensed dealers at a flea market gun show in 1992. Gun-control advocates have complained that a loophole in Federal law allows anyone, licensed or not, to sell weapons at gun shows.

Late yesterday, police officials reviewed two home videos of the shooting. Chief Mendoza said the videos were taken by people filming the program at the youth service inside the church. He said 20 to 24 shots could be heard, though both videos abruptly ended with the shootings still in progress. In fact, he said, one of the cameras could have belonged to one of the victims.

In a sequence that lasted 60 to 90 seconds, Chief Mendoza said, the videos showed Mr. Ashbrook pacing at the back of the sanctuary, randomly firing into the pews of teen-agers.

''He took his time,'' the Chief said.

Chief Mendoza said letters found inside Mr. Ashbrook's house were similar in content to those he mailed to The Star-Telegram.

''He exhibited, in my opinion, a paranoia, problems in being able to hold a job, things of that sort,'' the Chief said, adding that Mr. Ashbrook had trouble getting along with co-workers.

Military records released on Thursday showed that in 1983, in his second stint in the Navy, Mr. Ashbrook was discharged after he was court-martialed for possessing marijuana. The records also detailed four awards and decorations that Mr. Ashbrook earned in his seven years in the service.

During a search of Mr. Ashbrook's house on Thursday, investigators found a book about serial killers. Mr. Ashbrook had shared the house with his elderly father, who died in July, and investigators were said to have discovered that he had torn apart a family Bible. Witnesses inside the church said he shouted insults about Baptists and their beliefs.

But Chief Mendoza said that an exact motive for the crime might never be known and that his department would not spend the time to pursue it in a case he considered all but closed. He said that Mr. Ashbrook had no apparent connection to Wedgwood Baptist, located about seven miles from his home, and that investigators had not determined why he chose that church for his attack.

Mabel Arfman, who lives one block from Mr. Ashbrook's home, said that a few weeks ago she saw Mr. Ashbrook place on their neighbors' doorsteps copies of a six-page letter in an envelope marked, ''Read Now: 'All in Danger.' ''

The letter, which did not bear Mr. Ashbrook's name, warned of a plot, by Iraq, Russia and other countries, to unleash terrorism and deadly viruses in cities across the United States. It encouraged readers to buy a $199 manual that the letter said contained valuable information to help people survive such an attack.

Photo: Students at Brewer High School in White Settlement, Tex., hung banners in the gym yesterday before a memorial for students shot on Wednesday. (Rodger Mallison/Fort Worth Star-Telegram, via Associated Press)